Volcanic Ash Scientifically Speaking

What to know a bit more of what scientists are saying about Volcanic Ash CLICK HERE

Volcanic Ash over..What happens now?

Airline operators across vast areas of Europe were brought to a complete halt for six days by a volcanic ash cloud, and the knock-on effect of the disruption was felt around the world with hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded and aircraft and flight crew displaced (Photo Credit: Aeroports de Paris)

The flying in Europe has resumed and the recriminations over the six-day closure of vast swathes of the continent’s airspace by a volcanic ash cloud have just begun. According to the International Air Transport Association, the crisis has cost carriers more than $1.7 billion in lost revenue. Some of the most seriously affected airlines, such as British Airways, have demanded compensation from governments, arguing that authorities overreacted to the safety threat posed by the ash and closed airspace too comprehensively and for too long. Governments argue that they had little choice but to opt for a complete closure, given the initial lack of conclusive technical data on the effect of ash on engines in a fast-changing situation.
But the unprecedented emergency has established, surely beyond doubt, the lack of viability of European Union rules on passenger compensation for cancelled or long-delayed flights. EU carriers face completely open-ended costs covering hotel accommodation and meals for stranded passengers who might each have paid just $10 for their tickets. The circumstance prompted bombastic Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary to declare that he will not pay passenger compensation, urging the Irish government to prosecute him for breach of EU law. For those readers who haven’t had the benefit of O’Leary’s previous contributions to enlightened discussion of air transport business models, he is the airline chief executive who plans to charge passengers to use lavatories during flights.

So are airlines and the aerospace industry completely blameless victims in this situation? Volcanologists have claimed that they have repeatedly tried to work with the industry to develop a clear understanding of the safety implications of volcanic ash, to no avail. Following the 1982 incident in which a BA Boeing 747 lost power from all four engines after flying into a volcanic ash cloud over Indonesia, the International Civil Aviation Organization established a network to inform the industry and authorities about volcanic eruptions. But, on its own admission, the United Nations-backed body still has yet to issue clear and comprehensive guidelines on the precise safety parameters and recommended procedures for air transport operations in such conditions.
CLICK HERE for airlines phone numbers.

Volcanic Ash! - Does my Trip Insurance Cover Me?

The Travel Guard Group, USA reports it has seen call volumes increase up to 300% because of the volcanic ash issues. Hold times were kept to a minimum as cross trained employees were shifted from other areas of the company to assist callers to their 24/7 Service Center. Tom Zavadsky, Exec. V.P. of Sales and Marketing offers some interesting questions regarding coverage... worth sharing.
The below questions and answers apply to policies purchased through Travel Guard Group, Inc. USA (Travel Guard).

Question One: "I am scheduled for future travel and purchased my insurance policy prior to this volcanic event. If this volcano subsides and then erupts again, causing my future travel plans to be disrupted, will this be considered unforeseen and could coverage apply?"
Answer: Under most of our US products, you would be covered based on your purchase date being prior to April 14, 2010, subject to policy terms and conditions. We encourage you to contact our 24/7 Service Center or your Travel Guard sales representatives with additional questions as coverage and benefits vary by product.
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Question Two: "I am scheduled to travel this summer and have not yet purchased a policy. If I purchase a policy today and a future eruption of the Iceland volcano occurs would I be covered?"
Answer: If the current Iceland Volcano situation subsides and commercial airlines resume normal schedules prior to your trip, any new eruption would be considered a new event under our US policies. Coverage would be administered according to the product purchased (based on limits) and 24/7 Service Center or your Travel Guard sales representatives with additional questions as coverage and benefits vary by product.

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Question Three: "I have insurance and am scheduled to fly out later this week. What should I do if my flight is cancelled?"
Answer:The first call you should make is to your air carrier as all airlines have made rebooking passengers impacted by this event a priority. That said, please contact Travel Guard for additional assistance, both for flight rebooking and to initiate a claim if applicable.
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Question Four: "What is the coverage cut-off date for the current Iceland volcano event?"
Answer: Eligible US plans would need to have been purchased before April 14, 2010.
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Question Five: "My customers are stranded away from home. What can you do to help them?"
Answer: Our 24/7 assistance centers stand ready to help you and your customers. Our services include flight rebooking, hotel rebooking, cash wire transfers, translation services, message relay and more. Our worldwide reach has also helped our insureds avoid spending nights in airports, as we have helped get them accommodated in hotels during their delays.
For airlines telephone numbers CLICK HERE.

Ash Cloud Update for Wednesday April 21 and contact numbers

Europe's skies reopened for business on Wednesday but it could take days or weeks to clear the six-day backlog. Here is a list of countries as of 1500 GMT on Wednesday and their airspace status: CLICK HERE for airline telephone numbers.

AUSTRIA - Airspace open as of 0300 GMT Monday.
BELGIUM - Belgium began allowing planes to land on Tuesday. Some flight departures were allowed from 1200 GMT Tuesday.
BOSNIA - Airports open (see Serbia entry).
BRITAIN - Britain reopened its airspace on Tuesday night. British Airways say it will operate all its long-haul flights departing from Heathrow and Gatwick airports on Wednesday, but there would be short-haul cancellations to and from London airports until 1200 GMT.
BULGARIA - All airspace and airports open.
CZECH REPUBLIC - Airspace and airports open as of 1000 GMT on Monday. Prague Airport plans to handle 322 flights on Wednesday, around 83 percent of normal operations.
DENMARK - All airspace and airports remain open until at least 0600 GMT on Thursday.
ESTONIA - Airspace open.
FINLAND - Finavia closed the main Helsinki-Vantaa airport on Wednesday afternoon after opening it for a few hours earlier. Finnair said it would cancel all domestic and European traffic, along with departing long-haul flights. Besides Helsinki, the airports in Turku, Malmi, Lappeenranta and Mariehamn are also closed. The situation would be reviewed at 2100 GMT, but expected restrictions on southern Finland's airspace would continue.
FRANCE - All French long-haul flights should be departing as normal, but flights to some northern European airports could still be suspended. Air France-KLM said in a statement its network was almost back to normal.
GERMANY - Air traffic control said German airspace would be open by 0900 GMT. Airports in the cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, and Hanover were open. About 700 flights, or about half of the usual number, were expected to take off and land in Frankfurt on Wednesday, airport operator Fraport say. It will take at least 24 hours or even several days until flight operations have returned to normal.
HUNGARY - Hungarian airspace is fully open, the air traffic authority said around 0800 GMT on Tuesday.
IRELAND - Flights in Northern Europe (except flights between Ireland and the UK) to operate as scheduled from 0400 GMT Thursday. Flights between Ireland and UK will resume normal schedules from 0400 GMT on Friday.
ITALY - Airspace has completely reopened.
LATVIA - Airspace open.
LUXEMBOURG - Luxembourg Airport reopened at 0800 GMT Tuesday.
MOLDOVA - Resumed international flights from 0730 GMT Tuesday.
MONTENEGRO - Airports open (see Serbia).
NETHERLANDS - Passenger flights began on Monday. Night flights resumed on Tuesday.
NORWAY - All Norway's airspace, including over offshore oil installations, is open until 1200 GMT. Airport authority Avinor anticipates that the airspace will remain open until tonight.
POLAND - Poland was reopening its airspace from 0500 GMT.
PORTUGAL - All airports have been open throughout the crisis -- its airspace has not been affected.
ROMANIA - Airspace fully reopened.
RUSSIA - All airports open. Aeroflot is flying to the United States via the North Pole.
SERBIA - Air traffic control said most of the air space in its area of responsibility (Serbia, Montenegro, parts of Bosnia and Southern Adriatic) is again affected by the volcanic ash cloud. It will decide every six hours whether to close airspace partially or completely. Airports in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia are currently open for traffic.
SLOVAKIA - Airspace and airports open as of 1240 GMT on Monday. Bratislava airport has resumed operation of flights, but no heavy traffic as Ryanair, operating most of the flights to and from Slovakia, has suspended all flights until Thursday 1100 GMT.
SLOVENIA - Slovenian airspace was opened at 1000 GMT on Tuesday. It had been partly closed since 0200 GMT Tuesday.
SPAIN - 17 airports open.
SWEDEN - Stockholm Arlanda airport will reopen at 1400 GMT. Aviation authority say bans on flying through most of Swedish airspace would be gradually lifted throughout the day.
SWITZERLAND - Geneva and Zurich airports reopened on Tuesday morning though some flights were cancelled at both.
TURKEY - All airports open. Flight restrictions at certain altitudes in three Black Sea cities have been lifted.
UKRAINE - Major airline MAU say it plans to conduct all regular flights, including flights to Europe.
(Reuters)

Ash Cloud update. Flights Pick Up In Europe As Ash Risk Lowered

European airports started to return to life on Today after five days cut off from the rest of the world by a volcanic ash cloud, as authorities downgraded the risk the ash posed to aircraft.

Britain, a major global air hub as well as a busy destination in its own right that has been squarely under the ash plume, said it would reopen all its airspace within hours, giving a huge boost to travellers and air freight.
The progressive reopening offered stranded passengers relief after days of frustration since no-fly zones were imposed on Thursday.
European aviation control agency Eurocontrol said on Tuesday about half of scheduled air traffic in Europe was expected to operate: about 14,000 flights, up from a third on Monday.

Britain had lagged its European neighbours in downgrading the threat to planes from the ash, which can potentially scour and even paralyse jet engines. Maybe I will finally receive my FedEx envelope missing for a week?
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Ash Cloud Update. Some Flights Resume

"The volcano eruption in Iceland has strengthened and a new ash cloud is spreading south and east towards the UK", -- Britain's National Air Traffic Services.

Flights from large parts of Europe were set to resume on Tuesday under a deal to free up airspace closed by a huge ash cloud, but further eruptions from an Icelandic volcano threatened to unravel the plans.
British air traffic controllers warned a new ash cloud was headed for major air routes, prompting British Airways to cancel its short-haul flights, while several countries either closed airports anew or curtailed use of their airspace.
Poland, which had reopened four airports on Monday, closed them again on Tuesday, as well as shutting the northern part of its airspace to transit flights, citing the ash cloud.
Hungary closed part of its western airspace below 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) due to higher amounts of volcanic ash, its air traffic authority said, and Ireland said the renewed eruption of the Icelandic volcano on Monday, and prevailing weather conditions, forced it to extend its airspace closure.
"The density of volcanic ash over Irish airspace is such that restrictions will have to continue until 1200 GMT today at least," the Irish Aviation Authority said in a statement.
Britain's biggest airports remained closed, and even where flights resumed, at Edinburgh and Glasgow airports in Scotland, the service was limited.
Britain was deploying three navy ships, including an aircraft carrier, to bring its citizens home from continental Europe. The British travel agents' association ABTA estimated 150,000 Britons were stranded abroad. Washington said it was trying to help 40,000 Americans stuck in Britain.
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Ash Cloud Update Airports And Airspace as of 0600GMT Monday 19 April

Large parts of Europe enforced no-fly rulings for a fourth day on Sunday because of a huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano/  Here is a list of countries as of 1100 GMT on Monday and their airspace status: CLICK HERE  for airlines phone numbers

AUSTRIA - Airports open as of 0400 GMT Monday. ..
BELGIUM - Air space closed until Monday 1800 GMT. Airlines have been allowed to bring planes back to Belgium without passengers or freight.
BOSNIA - Airports open.
BRITAIN - Airspace closed all Monday. British Airways cancels all Monday flights.
BULGARIA - Sofia, Plovdiv and Burgas airports open, airports in northern Bulgaria closed. Transit flights permitted at 8,000 metres (26,250 feet) altitude.
CZECH REPUBLIC - Airspace and airports open as of 1000 GMT Monday.
DENMARK - Airspace open for flights above 10,800 metres (35,500 feet). Airspace below this height closed all Monday.
ESTONIA - Airspace closed until 1200 GMT Monday.
FINLAND - The main Helsinki-Vantaa airport will open at 1200 GMT for at least eight hours until 2000 GMT. Regional Turku and Tampere-Pirkkala airports open until 2100 GMT
FRANCE - Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and several other southwest airports will remain open until at least 1300 GMT Monday. Airports north of Nice-Bordeaux line remain closed at least until Tuesday morning. Air France said a test flight from Paris to Toulouse on Sunday had ended without problems; tests continuing.
GERMANY - Airports shut until 1200 GMT Monday.
HUNGARY - Airspace fully open as of 1000 GMT Monday.
IRELAND - Airspace closed until at least 1200 GMT on Monday. Ryanair cancelled all flights to and from northern Europe until at least mid-Wednesday. Aer Lingus cancelled all flights on Monday.
ITALY - Northern airspace up to 6,700 metres (22,000 feet) re-closed until at least 0600 GMT Tuesday, after briefly opening airspace for two hours on Monday.
LATVIA - Airspace above 6,000 metres (19,700 feet) now open for transit flights, but flights to and from Riga airport not expected to resume on Monday.
LITHUANIA - Airspace open.
LUXEMBOURG - Air space closed until Monday 1800 GMT.
MONTENEGRO - Airports open.
NETHERLANDS - Airspace shut until at least 1200 GMT Monday.
NORWAY - Oslo Gardermoen Airport open for some air traffic. Other parts of the country, such as parts of northern Norway, closed to traffic.
POLAND - Airports closed on Monday. Transit flights in airspace permitted, but not landings and take-offs.
ROMANIA - Main Bucharest airport open from 1200 GMT Monday after two-day closure. May fully reopen airspace on Tuesday.
RUSSIA - All airports open. Aeroflot is flying to the United States via the North Pole.
SERBIA - Airports open.
SLOVAKIA - Eastern airspace open, as is the rest of its airspace for flights above 7,500 metres. Bratislava airport closed.
SLOVENIA - Slovenia expects another cloud of ash to reach its airspace around 1200 GMT Monday following which it will probably close its airspace again after opening it last night.
SPAIN - 17 airports open.
SWEDEN - Airspace open for flights north of a line stretching from the southern city of Gothenburg to Stockholm. SAS resuming domestic flights in the unrestricted airspace as well as flights between Stockholm and Oslo.
SWITZERLAND - Flight ban until at least 0600 GMT Tuesday. No instrument-guided flights will be allowed to land at or take off from Swiss airports. Transit permitted at an altitude above 6,400 metres (21,000 feet).
TURKEY - All airports open. Planes flying out of the Black Sea cities of Samsun, Sinop and Zonguldak have been advised not to fly higher than 6,000 metres.
UKRAINE - Kiev's Borispol airport open

Ash Cloud List of countries airspace status as of Sunday April 18

Large parts of Europe enforced no-fly rulings today for a fourth day because of a huge ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano that has caused the worst air travel chaos since the Sept. 11 attacks. For airline phone numbers click here. Below is a list of countries as of 2030 GMT on Sunday and their airspace status:

AUSTRIA - Airports expected to reopen 0400 GMT Monday.
BELGIUM - Airspace closed until at least 1800 GMT Sunday. Main airline, Brussels Airlines, has cancelled all flights until Monday.
BRITAIN - Airspace closed until at least 1800 GMT Monday. British Airways cancels all Monday flights.
BULGARIA - Sofia and Plovdiv airports open as of 1100 GMT Sunday. Other airports closed. Transit flights permitted at 8,000 metres altitude.
CZECH REPUBLIC - Airspace closed until at least 1000 GMT Monday.
DENMARK - Airspace closed until 1200 GMT Monday.
ESTONIA - Airspace closed until 1200 GMT Monday.
FINLAND - Airspace closed until at least 1500 GMT Monday.
FRANCE - Bordeaux, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse and several other southwest airports will remain open until at least 1300 GMT Monday. Airports north of Nice-Bordeaux line remain closed at least until Tuesday morning. Air France said a test flight from Paris to Toulouse on Sunday had ended without problems; tests continuing.
GERMANY - International airports shut until 1200 GMT Monday. Temporary opening permission to Berlin's Tegel and Schoenefeld airports to end at 2200 GMT.
HUNGARY - Airspace to remain closed until at least 1000 GMT Monday, although some flights at the discretion of traffic control may be allowed to take off or land.
IRELAND - Airspace closed until at least 1200 GMT on Monday. Ryanair cancelled all flights to and from northern Europe until at least mid-Wednesday. Aer Lingus cancelled all flights Monday.
ITALY - Northern airspace to reopen from 0500 GMT Monday.
LATVIA - Airspace closed until 0600 GMT Monday.
LITHUANIA - Lithuania airspace is now open, Vilnius Airport said on its website on Sunday.
LUXEMBOURG - Luxembourg airport closed until at least 1600 GMT Sunday.
NETHERLANDS - Airspace shut until at least 0600 GMT Monday.
NORWAY - Main airport, Oslo Gardermoen, opened for take-offs, but so far no landings, aviation authority Avinor told news channel TV 2. Airspace opened for some traffic north of Bergen, with some northern areas still closed
POLAND - Six Polish airports, including Warsaw, reopened for commercial flights.
ROMANIA - Airspace closed until at least 0900 GMT Monday.
RUSSIA - All airports open. Aeroflot is flying to the United States via the North Pole.
SLOVAKIA - Airspace closed as of 1300 GMT on Friday.
SLOVENIA - Airspace was opened around 1800 GMT Sunday and will stay open until at least 0400 GMT Monday, national news agency STA cited Traffic Ministry as saying. However, the ministry expects it to be closed again because of more ash reaching Slovenia around 0600 GMT, STA said.
SPAIN - The 17 airports closed on Sunday morning by the Spanish airport authorities now open.
SWEDEN - Airport authority has opened airspace north of 62 degrees latitude, about 250 km north of Stockholm. The rest remains closed into Monday. SAS said most of its flights on April 18 and 19 had been cancelled.
SWITZERLAND - Main carrier Swiss says cancelled all European flights from and to Switzerland until Monday, 1800 GMT. Swiss also says cancelled all intercontinental flights from Switzerland for all of Monday.
TURKEY - All airports open. Planes flying out of the Black Sea cities of Samsun, Sinop and Zonguldak have been advised not to fly higher than 20,000 feet (6 km).
UKRAINE - Kiev's Borispol airport open
(Reuters)


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Why is Volcanic Ash bad for aircraft?

Aircraft avoid airspace that has volcanic ash because it can damage the flight ability of both propeller and jet aircraft. Ash is so fine that it can invade spaces between rotating machinery and possibly jam them, Silica in ash melts at about 1,100 degrees and fuses to turbine blades and nozzle guide vanes (another part of the turbine assembly), which in modern aircraft operate at 1,400 degrees.
Other possible problems is ash can pit the windscreens of the pilots cabin, damage the fuselage and light covers, and in some cases coat a plane so much that it could become tail-heavy. At runways ash creates an extra problem during takeoffs and landings will throw it into the air again – where the engines can suck it in and it may cause major damage to moving parts. The Icelandic ash plume has been thrown into the atmosphere to between 6km and 11km – exactly the height that aircraft would be flying at.
If you have plans to fly to or within Europe worldwide airlines numbers are provided for you convience, click here.

Most German Airports closed indefinitely. Other European Airports effected by ash.

Flights at Frankfurt and other German airports were halted indefinitely today as a high-altitude cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland spread further over Europe.
No flights were landing or departing from the Frankfurt airport - the biggest in Germany and the hub for Lufthansa's worldwide operations - from 8 am, an airport spokesman said.
The airport was not formally closed, however, and operations could quickly resume once meteorological conditions improve, he added.
Elsewhere in Germany, flights were grounded at Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, and other smaller airports.
The ash floating thousands of kilometres from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano has also forced the unprecedented closure of airports across Europe.
The European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) said in a statement it expected around 11,000 flights on Friday in European airspace, down from the normal 28,000.
Besides the airports closed in Germany, airspace is not open to civilian aircraft travel in Ireland, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia, the north of France including all Paris airports, and parts of Poland including Warsaw airport, Eurocontrol said.
“Planning to fly to or within northern Europe in the next few days? Best check with your airline for flight cancelations caused by the Volcanic Ash – For Airline Contact Numbers, Click here

Ash cloud from Iceland grounds UK flights

NEWS ALERT
All flights in and out of the UK have been suspended as ash from a volcanic eruption in Iceland moves south.

Safety body Eurocontrol said up to 4,000 flights across northern Europe would be cancelled on Thursday.
The Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) said no flights would be allowed in or out of UK airspace until 1800BST amid fears of engine damage. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8621407.stm

Positive Results For Air Traffic at Düsseldorf Airport

Some 810,000 passengers arrived and departed Düsseldorf Airport during the two-week Easter holidays. The good news...that is a plus of 9.1 percent compared with last year’s Easter holidays. The airlines carried out about 8,800 take-offs and landings in the period of the holidays – as many as in the Easter holidays of 2009. The day with the heaviest traffic was the last day of school: On Friday, March 26, some 63,000 passengers were counted at the airport and about 700 take-offs and landings. By comparison: Düsseldorf International usual count is 49,000 passengers and 590 take-offs and landings on an average day.

Altogether 3.7 million air passengers were counted at Düsseldorf Airport in the first quarter of this year. Consequently, the volume of passengers has grown by 7.8 percent compared with the same period last year. These figures lift the airport into the top group of comparable German airports. After the fall in traffic caused by the decline in 2009 the recovery of air traffic in Düsseldorf, is on the rise....
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BA cabin crew highest paid in industry

Intersting to discover from previously unpublished figures that the BA cabin crew were the only UK cabin crews last year to get pay raises – on top of their industry leading salaries. Despite the fact the company reported record losses, and other carriers cut or froze crew salaries, BA cabin crew salaries rose by 5%.

Previously unpublished figures from the Civil Aviation Authority shows BA’s 12,000 striking cabin crew were paid an average of £31,400 ($45,570) in 2009. Five per cent higher than the £29,900 ($46,250) they received the previous year.
Virgin Atlantic’s crew had their pay frozen at £14,400 ($22,270).
Crew at bmi took a 6.5% average reduction to £17,200 ($26,600).
Charter carriers Monarch and Thomas Cook, cut crew pay by approximately 13%.
But don't let that worry you because europebyair.com is still the first choice for cheap airfares to and within Europe.

Lufthansa pilots call off strike. But German air traffic controllers may walkout

German air traffic controllers may go on strike over working hours, just as Lufthansa pilots called off a planned walkout.
Cabin crew at British Airway recently staged two strikes over pay and jobs. The carrier and union officials have now resumed talks.

Is it really going to cost a buck and a half to use the toilet

Word is speading that Irish low cost carrier, Ryanair is working with aircraft manufacturer Boeing to develop a coin-operated toilet so it can charge customers one British Pound (1.50 U.S.) to use the toilets on short-haul flights lasting less than an hour. Hmmm...one may have to cut back on the beer drinking..or hope flight attendants have lots of change...
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BA and Iberia finally put the pen to a merger agreement

Today British Airways and Spain's Iberia signed an USD$8 billion merger to create the world's third-largest airline by revenue.
The merger, which they hope to complete by December, is designed to help BA and Iberia stem over USD$1 billion of combined annual losses following the worst industry downturn in decades.
The majority of the combined group will be owned by BA shareholders. This consolidation ends the British company's long pursuit of Iberia and positions the companies for further consolidation.
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Düsseldorf’s International Cartwheel Championship

According to a recent press release. The city of Düsseldorf has been in love with cartwheels since 1288, legend has it. Now part of the cityscape, every visitor will come across the image of a cartwheel sooner or later, or even have children offer to perform them for money (a nickel or a dime a piece), as they do to passersby on the street all year long. The city founded an annual cartwheel championship in 1937, and now up to 700 boys and girls from up to 15 countries compete every year. The next event will take place June 20, 2010.
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Lufthansa pilots may strike next week

Pilots at Lufthansa renewed their threat to strike for four days next week unless they can agree with the German flag carrier on terms for arbitration.